Outline of evolution

Introduction

• Introduction to evolution – A non-technical explanation of the basic concepts and principles of biological evolution
• Evolution – Change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations
• Evolution as fact and theory – A discussion of the meaning and usage of the terms evolution, fact and theory

Basic principles

• Macroevolution – Evolution on a scale at or above the level of species
  • Speciation – The evolutionary process by which populations evolve to become distinct species
    • Natural speciation
      • Allopatric speciation – Speciation that occurs between geographically isolated populations
      • Peripatric speciation – Speciation in which a new species is formed from an isolated smaller peripheral population
      • Parapatric speciation – Speciation within a population where subpopulations are reproductively isolated
      • Sympatric speciation – A process through which new species evolve from a single ancestral species while inhabiting the same geographic region
    • Artificial speciation
      • Animal husbandry – Management, selective breeding and care of farm animals by humans
      • Plant breeding – The art and science of changing the traits of plants in order to produce desired characteristics
      • Genetic engineering – Direct manipulation of an organism's genome using biotechnology
    • Hybrid speciation – A form of speciation where hybridization between two different species leads to a new species, reproductively isolated from the parent species
  • Despeciation – The loss of a unique species of animal due to its combining with another previously distinct species
  • Anagenesis – Gradual evolutionary change in a species without splitting
  • Extinction – Termination of a taxon by the death of the last member
• Microevolution – The change in allele frequencies that occurs over time within a population
  • Artificial selection – Process by which humans use animal and plant breeding to selectively develop particular phenotypic traits
  • Natural selection – Mechanism of evolution by differential survival and reproduction of individuals
    • Sexual selection – A mode of natural selection wherein members of one biological sex choose mates of the other sex, and compete with members of the same sex
  • Mutation – A permanent change of the nucleotide sequence of the genome of an organism
  • Gene flow – The transfer of genetic variation from one population to another
  • Genetic drift – The change in the frequency of an existing gene variant in a population

Subfields

• Biogeography – The study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time
• Ecological genetics – The study of genetics in natural populations
• Evolutionary biology – Study of the processes that produced the diversity of life
  • Evolutionary developmental biology – Field of research that compares the developmental processes of different organisms to infer the ancestral relationships
• Evolutionary ecology – Study of how interactions among species and between species and their environment affect species through selection and adaptation
• Evolutionary physiology – Study of how the functional characteristics of individuals in a population of organisms have responded to selection across multiple generations
• Evolutionary taxonomy – Classification of organisms based on shared descent, serial descent, and degree of evolutionary change
• Experimental evolution – Use of laboratory and field experiments to explore evolutionary dynamics
• Molecular evolution – The process of change in the sequence composition of cellular molecules across generations
• Phylogenetics – Study of the evolutionary history and relationships among individuals or groups of organisms
• Population genetics – Study of genetic differences within and between populations including the study of adaptation, speciation, and population structure
• Paleontology – Scientific study of prehistoric life
  • Paleovirology – The study of viruses that existed in the past but are now extinct
  • Timeline of paleontology – A timeline of notable events in the sudy of ancient life
• Systematics – The study of the diversification and relationships among living things through time

History

• Charles Darwin – British naturalist, author of "On the origin of species, by means of natural selection"
  • On the Origin of Species – A work of scientific literature by Charles Darwin which is considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology
  • Caricatures of Charles Darwin and his evolutionary theory in 19th-century England – Caricatures of Darwin and his evolutionary theory reveal some critics' perception of Darwin, his “monkey theory” and apes in 19th-century England
• History of evolutionary thought – The history of evolutionary thought in biology
  • By period or event
    • Evolutionary ideas of the Renaissance and Enlightenment – Changes in thinking about evolution from religious and spiritual to more mechanistic and biological over the 17th and 18th centuries
    • Transmutation of species – 19th-century evolutionary ideas for the altering of one species into another that preceded Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection
    • 1860 Oxford evolution debate – Famous discussion about evolution featuring an exchange between Wilberforce and Huxley
    • The eclipse of Darwinism – The period when evolution was widely accepted, but natural selection was not
    • Evolutionary progress – Hypothesis that organisms have an innate tendency to evolve towards some goal
    • Scopes Trial – 1925 legal case in Tennessee, USA, testing the legality of teaching evolution in schools
    • Modern synthesis – Combination of Darwins theory of evolution with natural selection and Mendel's findings on heredity
    • Current research – Study of the processes that produced the diversity of life
  • By field
    • Evolutionary developmental biology – Field of research that compares the developmental processes of different organisms to infer the ancestral relationships
    • History of evolutionary psychology
    • History of molecular evolution – History of the field of study of molecular evolution
    • History of paleontology – The history of the effort to understand the history of life on Earth by studying the fossil record
• Social effect of evolutionary theory

Population genetics

• Population genetics – Study of genetic differences within and between populations including the study of adaptation, speciation, and population structure
• Process
  • Mutation – A permanent change of the nucleotide sequence of the genome of an organism
  • Selection
    • Natural selection – Mechanism of evolution by differential survival and reproduction of individuals
      • Sexual selection – A mode of natural selection wherein members of one biological sex choose mates of the other sex, and compete with members of the same sex
    • Artificial selection – Process by which humans use animal and plant breeding to selectively develop particular phenotypic traits
    • Ecological selection – Natural selection without sexual selection
  • Gene flow – The transfer of genetic variation from one population to another
  • Genetic drift – The change in the frequency of an existing gene variant in a population
    • Small population size – Statistical effects of small numbers on a population
    • Population bottleneck – The effects of a sharp reduction in numbers on the diversity and robustness of the population
    • Founder effect – Loss of genetic variation that occurs when a new population is established by a very small number of individuals
    • Coalescent theory – A model for tracing the history of genetic variation
• Variation
  • Genetic variation – The concept and mechanisms of variation in alleles of genes
    • Genetic diversity – The total number of genetic characteristics in the genetic makeup of a species
    • Gene frequency – The relative frequency of a variant of a gene at a particular locus in a population
    • Polymorphism (biology) – Occurrence of two or more clearly different morphs or forms in the population of a species
• Key concepts
  • Hardy-Weinberg law – Allele and genotype frequencies in a population will remain constant over generations in the absence of other evolutionary influences
  • Genetic linkage – The tendency of DNA sequences that are close together on a chromosome to be inherited together
  • Identity by descent – Identical nucleotide sequence due to inheritance without recombination from a common ancester
  • Linkage disequilibrium – The non-random association of alleles at two or more genetic loci
  • Fisher's fundamental theorem – A principle relating genetic variance to fitness
  • Neutral theory – Most evolutionary changes at molecular level are not caused by natural selection but by genetic drift of mutant alleles that do not affect an organism's abiity to survive and reproduce
  • Shifting balance theory – A theory suggesting that adaptive evolution may proceed most quickly when subpopulations have restricted gene flow
  • Price equation – Description of how a trait or gene changes in frequency over time
  • Coefficient of relationship – A measure of the degree of biological relationship between two individuals
  • Fitness – The average contribution to the gene pool of the next generation made by individuals of the specified genotype or phenotype
  • Heritability – Estimation of effect of genetic variation on phenotypic variation of a trait
• Effects of selection
  • Genetic hitchhiking – Incidental selection of non-harmful genes which are close to a beneficial gene on the same DNA chain
  • Negative selection (natural selection) – The selective removal of alleles that are deleterious
• Related topics
  • Microevolution – The change in allele frequencies that occurs over time within a population
  • Evolutionary game theory – The application of game theory to evolving populations in biology
  • Fitness landscape – Model used to visualise relationship between genotypes and reproductive success
  • Genetic genealogy – The use of DNA testing in combination with traditional genealogical methods to infer relationships between individuals and find ancestors
  • Quantitative genetics – The study of the inheritance of continuously variable traits

Evolutionary phenomena

• Adaptation – Trait with a current functional role in the life history of an organism maintained and evolved by natural selection
• Adaptive radiation – A process in which organisms diversify rapidly from an ancestral species into a multitude of new forms
• Coevolution – Two or more species influencing each other's evolution
• Concerted evolution
• Convergent evolution – Independent evolution of similar features in species of different lineages which creates analogous structures
  • List of examples of convergent evolution
• Divergent evolution – Accumulation of differences between closely related species populations, leading to speciation
  • Divergent evolution in animals – Accumulation of genetic and phenotypic differences within a species, which can lead to speciation
• Evolution of ageing – Study of the evolutionary development of ageing processes
• Evolution of biological complexity – The tendency for maximum complexity to increase over time, though without any overall direction
• Evolution of multicellularity – The development of organisms that consists of more than one cell from unicellular ancestors
• Evolution of photosynthesis – The origin and subsequent evolution of the process by which light energy is used to synthesize sugars
• Evolution of sexual reproduction – How sexually reproducing multicellular organisms could have evolved from a common ancestor species
• Evolutionary arms race – The competition of sets of genes, traits, or species, that develop adaptations and counter-adaptations against each other
• Evolutionary capacitance – Hypothetical mechanism to activate and deactivate phenotypic effect of accumulated genetic variation
• Evolutionary fauna
• Evolutionary logic
• Evolutionary pressure – Any cause that reduces reproductive success in a proportion of a population
• Evolutionary radiation – An increase in taxonomic diversity or morphological disparity, due to adaptive change or the opening of ecospace
• Evolutionary trap – Cases in which an evolved, and presumably adaptive, trait has suddenly become maladaptive
• Evolvability – The capacity of a system for adaptive evolution
• Exaptation – A shift in the function of a trait during evolution
• Extinction – Termination of a taxon by the death of the last member
• Fitness (biology) – The average contribution to the gene pool of the next generation made by individuals of the specified genotype or phenotype
  • Inclusive fitness – A measure of evolutionary success based on the number of offspring the individual supports
    • Kin selection – The evolutionary strategy that favours the reproductive success of an organism's relatives, even at a cost to the organism's own survival and reproduction
  • Reproductive success – The passing of genes on to the next generation in a way that they too can pass on those genes
• Genetic recombination – The production of offspring with combinations of traits that differ from those found in either parent
• Horizontal gene transfer in evolution – The evolutionary consequences of transfer of genetic materail between organisms of different taxa
• Human evolution (origins of society and culture)
• Inversion (evolutionary biology) – Hypothesis that during the course of chordate evolution, the structures along the dorsoventral axis have taken on an orientation opposite that of the ancestral form
• Mosaic evolution – Evolution of characters at various rates both within and between species
• Parallel evolution – Similar development of a trait in distinct species which are not not closely related in response to similar evolutionary pressure
• Quantum evolution – Evolution where transitional forms are particularly unstable and do not last long
• Recurrent evolution – The repeated evolution of a particular character
• Robustness (evolution) – The persistence of a certain characteristic or trait in a system under perturbations or conditions of uncertainty
• Speciation – The evolutionary process by which populations evolve to become distinct species

Modelling

• Emergent evolution – The hypothesis that, in the course of evolution, some entirely new properties, such as mind and consciousness, appear at certain critical points
• Epic of evolution – A narrative that blends religious and scientific views of cosmic, biological and sociocultural evolution in a mythological manner
• Evolution window – A narrow band of mutation step size that is conducive to significant evolutionary progress
• Evolutionary dynamics – The study of the mathematical principles according to which biological organisms and cultural ideas evolve
• Evolutionary game theory – The application of game theory to evolving populations in biology
• Evolutionary graph theory – An approach to studying how topology affects evolution of a population
• Evolutionary invasion analysis – Mathematical modeling techniques that use differential equations to study the long-term evolution of traits in asexually reproducing populations
• Largest-scale trends in evolution – The low end minimum limit for complexity of living organisms may result in a general gradual trend for increased complexity over time

Fundamentals

• Taxonomy – The science of identifying, describing, defining and naming groups of biological organisms
  • Alpha taxonomy – The discipline of finding, describing, and naming taxa, particularly species
  • Biological classification – The science of identifying, describing, defining and naming groups of biological organisms
  • Binomial nomenclature – System of identifying species of organisms using a two-part name
  • Evolutionary taxonomy – Classification of organisms based on shared descent, serial descent, and degree of evolutionary change
  • Catalogue of life – Online database and index of taxa
  • Homonym (biology) – Scientific name that is identical in spelling to a name with a different type
  • Integrated Taxonomic Information System – Authoritative taxonomic information on plants, animals, fungi, and microbes
  • International Code of Zoological Nomenclature – Code of scientific nomenclature for animals
  • International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants – Code of scientific nomenclature
  • Linnaean taxonomy – A rank based classification system for organisms
  • Phenetics – An attempt to classify organisms based on overall similarity
  • Species 2000 – Federated taxonomic database system for species checklists
  • Taxon – Group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms which have distinguishing charachterisics in common
  • Taxonomic rank – Level in a taxonomic hierarchy
  • Type (biology) – Specimen(s) to which a scientific name is formally attached
  • Species description – Formal description and naming of a new recognised species
• Systematics – The study of the diversification and relationships among living things through time
  • Cladogram – A diagram used to show relations among groups of organisms with common origins
  • Phylogenetic tree – Diagrammatic hypothesis about the evolutionary relationships of a group of organisms
• Phylogenetics – Study of the evolutionary history and relationships among individuals or groups of organisms
  • Cladistics – A method of biological systematics in evolutionary biology
  • Computational phylogenetics – The application of computational algorithms, methods, and programs to phylogenetic analyses
  • Common descent – Characteristic of a group of organisms with a common ancestor
  • Evidence of common descent – Evidence that a given group of organisms have a common ancestor, and therefore that evolution has taken place.
  • Evolutionary grade – Non-monophyletic grouping of organisms united by morphological or physiological characteristics
  • Lineage (evolution) – Sequence of populations, organisms, cells, or genes that form a line of descent
  • Molecular phylogenetics – Tthe branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences
  • Most recent common ancestor – Most recent individual from which all organisms in a group are directly descended

Basic concepts of phylogenetics

• Phylogenetic tree – Diagrammatic hypothesis about the evolutionary relationships of a group of organisms
• Phylogenetic network – Any graph used to visualize evolutionary relationships
• Long branch attraction – A form of systematic error whereby distantly related lineages are incorrectly inferred to be closely related
• Clade – A group of organisms that consists of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants
• Grade – Non-monophyletic grouping of organisms united by morphological or physiological characteristics
• Ghost lineage – A phylogenetic lineage that is inferred to exist but has no fossil record.

Inference methods

• Maximum parsimony (phylogenetics) – Optimality criterion in which the shortest possible tree that explains the data is considered best
• Minimum evolution – Criterion in which the tree with the shortest total branch lengths is optimal
• Probabilistic methods
  • Maximum likelihood estimation – A method of estimating the parameters of a statistical model, given observations
  • Bayesian inference – Use of a likelhood function to produce the most likely phylogenetic tree fo given data
• Distance matrices in phylogeny
  • Neighbor joining – A bottom-up clustering method for creating phylogenetic trees
  • Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Mean (UPGMA) – Agglomerative hierarchical clustering method
  • Least squares inference in phylogeny – Generation of phylogenetic trees based on an observed matrix of pairwise genetic distances
• Three-taxon analysis – A cladistic based method of phylogenetic reconstruction

Current topics

• PhyloCode, also known as International Code of Phylogenetic Nomenclature – Draft for a new code of nomenclature for clades
• DNA barcoding – A taxonomic method that uses a short genetic marker in an organism's DNA to identify it as belonging to a particular species
• Molecular phylogenetics – Tthe branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences
• Phylogenetic comparative methods – Use of information on the historical relationships of lineages to test evolutionary hypotheses
• Phylogenetic network – Any graph used to visualize evolutionary relationships
• Phylogenetic niche conservatism
• List of phylogenetics software – A compilation of software used to produce phylogenetic trees
• Phylogenomics – The intersection of the fields of evolution and genomics
• Phylogeography – The study of the historical processes that may be responsible for the contemporary geographic distributions of individuals
• DNA phylogeny

Group Traits

• Symplesiomorphy – An ancestral character or trait state shared by two or more taxa
• Apomorphy – A shared characteristic that differs from the earlier ancestors that distinguishes a clade from other organisms
• Synapomorphy – A shared characteristic that differs from the earlier ancestors that distinguishes a clade from other organisms
• Autapomorphy – A distinctive feature, known as a derived trait, that is unique to a given taxon

Group Types

• Monophyly – Property of a group of including all taxa descendant from a common ancestral species
• Paraphyly – Property of a group which includes only descendants of a common ancestor, but excludes at least one monophyletic subgroup
• Polyphyly – A set of organisms that do not share an immediate common ancestor

Origin and evolutionary history of life

• Abiogenesis – The natural process by which life arises from non-living matter
• Evolutionary history of life – The processes by which organisms evolved on Earth
• Timeline of the evolutionary history of life – The current scientific theory outlining the major events during the development of life

Evolution of organisms

Evolution of cells, organs, and systems

• Evolution of cells – The evolutionary origin and subsequent development of cells
• Evolution of flagella – Origin of three known varieties of flagella
• Evolution of mammalian auditory ossicles – An evolutionary event in which bones from the jaws of reptiles became part of the hearing apparatus in mammals
• Evolution of nervous systems – Origin and subsequent variaton and development of neurons and neural tissues and organs
• Evolution of snake venom – The origin and diversification of snake venom through geologic time
• Evolution of the brain
• Evolution of the eye – The origins and diversification of the organs of sight through geologic time
  • Evolution of color vision – The origin and variation of colour vision across various lineages through geologic time
  • Evolution of color vision in primates – The loss and regain of colour vision during the evolution of primates
• Immune system – A biological system that protects an organism against disease
• Evolution of metabolism – The set of life-sustaining chemical transformations within the cells of organisms

Evolution of molecules and genes

• Directed evolution – A method used in protein engineering that mimics the process of natural selection to steer proteins or nucleic acids toward a user-defined goal
• Error threshold (evolution) – A limit on the number of base pairs a self-replicating molecule may have before mutation will destroy the information in subsequent generations of the molecule
• Evolution of DNA
• Evolution of dominance
• Gene-centered view of evolution – Reasoning that since heritable information is passed from generation to generation almost exclusively by DNA, natural selection and evolution are best considered from the perspective of genes
• Genome evolution – The process by which a genome changes in structure or size over time
• Hologenome theory of evolution – Evolutionary view of an individual multicellular organism as a community of the host plus all of its symbiotic microbes
• Molecular evolution – The process of change in the sequence composition of cellular molecules across generations
  • History of molecular evolution – History of the field of study of molecular evolution
  • Neutral theory of molecular evolution – Most evolutionary changes at molecular level are not caused by natural selection but by genetic drift of mutant alleles that do not affect an organism's abiity to survive and reproduce
  • Nearly neutral theory of molecular evolution – A modification of the neutral theory of molecular evolution that accounts for the fact that not all mutations are either so deleterious such that they can be ignored, or else neutral
• Neutral network (evolution) – A set of genes all related by point mutations that have equivalent function or fitness
• RNA-based evolution – A theory that posits that RNA is a dynamic and independent role-player in determining phenotype

Evolution of behaviour

• Co-operation (evolution) – Evolutionary process where groups of organisms work or act together for common or mutual benefits
• Evolution of biparental care in tropical frogs – The evolution of the behaviour in frogs in which both the mother and father raise their offspring
• Evolution of emotion – Study of the evolution of emotions
• Evolution of empathy – The capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing
• Evolution of eusociality – Origins of cooperative brood care, overlapping generations within a colony of adults, and a division of labor into reproductive and non-reproductive groups.
• Monogamy in animals – The natural history of mating systems in which species pair bond to raise offspring
• Reciprocal altruism – Behaviour whereby an organism acts in a manner that temporarily reduces its fitness while increasing another organism's fitness in the expectation of reciprocity
• Reciprocity (evolution) – Mechanisms whereby the evolution of cooperative or altruistic behaviour may be favoured by the probability of future mutual interactions

Evolution of other processes

• Evolution of ageing – Study of the evolutionary development of ageing processes
  • Evolution of aging and mortality
  • Origin of programmed cell death – Death of a cell mediated by intracellular program, often as part of development
• Origin of avian flight – Evolution of birds from non-flying ancestors
• Evolution of biological complexity – The tendency for maximum complexity to increase over time, though without any overall direction
• Mosaic evolution – Evolution of characters at various rates both within and between species
• Evolution of multicellularity – The development of organisms that consists of more than one cell from unicellular ancestors
• Evolution of sexual reproduction – How sexually reproducing multicellular organisms could have evolved from a common ancestor species
  • Mating types
  • Gamete differentiation/sexes – The form of sexual reproduction that involves the union or fusion of two gametes, which differ in size and/or form
  • Sex-determination – A biological system that determines the development of sexual characteristics in an organism
  • Life cycles/nuclear phases – A series of changes of form that an organism undergoes, returning to the starting state

Controversy about evolution

• Creation–evolution controversy – The ongoing cultural, political, and theological dispute about the development and diversity of life on Earth
  • Outline of the creation–evolution controversy – An overview of and topical guide to the creation–evolution controversy
• Criticism of evolutionary psychology
• Evolutionary argument against naturalism – A philosophical argument asserting a problem with believing both evolution and philosophical naturalism simultaneously
• Level of support for evolution – Discussion of variation in support for the theory of evolution by geopolitical distribution
• Objections to evolution – Description of the various arguments that have been made against evolution and the associated evidence for and against the arguments
• Social effects of evolutionary theory – The effects on human societies of the scientific explanation of life's diversity
• Theology of creationism and evolution

Religious and philosophical views of evolution

• Acceptance of evolution by religious groups – General review of religious attitudes towards scientific descriptions of evolution, and where relevant, their counterclaims
• Atheistic evolution
• Conscious evolution – The hypothetical ability of the human species to choose what they will become
• Buddhism and evolution – As no major principles of Buddhism contradict it, many Buddhists tacitly accept the theory of evolution
• Catholic Church and evolution – The Catholic Church supports theistic evolutionism, although Catholics are free not to believe in any part of evolutionary theory
• Hindu views on evolution – There is no major conflict between the religious beliefs of Hinduism and acceptance of the science of evolution
• Islamic views on evolution – Islamic views on evolution are diverse, ranging from theistic evolution to Old Earth creationism
  • Ahmadiyya views on evolution – The Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam universally accepts a process of divinely guided evolution
• Jewish views on evolution – Jewish views on evolution includes a continuum of views about the theory of evolution
• Mormon views on evolution – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints takes no official position on whether or not biological evolution has occurred
• Theistic evolution – Views that regard religious teachings about God as compatible with modern scientific understanding about biological evolution

Influence of evolutionary theory

• Social effects of evolutionary theory – The effects on human societies of the scientific explanation of life's diversity
• See also Applications in other disciplines

Books

• Evolution: The Modern Synthesis – book by Julian Huxley (grandson of Thomas Henry Huxley); one of the most important books of modern evolutionary synthesis, published in 1942
• The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection – book by R.A. Fisher important in modern evolutionary synthesis, first published in 1930
• Genetics and the Origin of Species – 1937 book by Ukrainian-American evolutionary biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky
• On the Origin of Species – A work of scientific literature by Charles Darwin which is considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology – seminal book by Charles Darwin concerning evolution by natural selection, first published in 1859
• Systematics and the Origin of Species from the Viewpoint of a Zoologist – book by zoologist and evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr, canonical publication of modern evolutionary synthesis, first published in 1942 by Columbia University Press
• The Structure of Evolutionary Theory – technical book on macroevolutionary theory by the Harvard paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould
• Evolutionary Biology

Journals

• Evolution – Monthly journal in the science of evolutionary biology
• Evolutionary Anthropology – Bimonthly review journal
• Evolutionary Bioinformatics – A peer-reviewed open access scientific journal focusing on computational biology in the study of evolution
• Evolutionary Psychology – Peer-reviewed open access academic journal
• Journal of Evolutionary Biology – Bimonthly peer-reviewed scientific journal
• Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research – A quarterly, peer reviewed, scientific journal
• Trends in Ecology & Evolution (TREE) – A series of journals that publish review articles in a range of areas of biology

Organizations

• European Society for Evolutionary Biology – Organisation to support the study of organic evolution
• Society for the Study of Evolution – A professional organization of evolutionary biologists
• Evolutionary psychology research groups and centers
• I. M. Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry – A research facility in Saint Petersburg, Russia
• Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology – A research institute based in Liepzig, Germany
• Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology – Research institute located in Plön, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.
• National Evolutionary Synthesis Center – A scientific research center in Durham, North Carolina
• Systematic and Evolutionary Biogeography Association
• Evolutionary Informatics Lab

Prominent evolutionary biologists

• Charles Darwin – British naturalist, author of "On the origin of species, by means of natural selection"
• Theodosius Dobzhansky – Ukrainian-American geneticist and evolutionary biologist
• Richard Dawkins – English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author
• Stephen Jay Gould – American evolutionary biologist and historian of science
• J. B. S. Haldane – British geneticist and evolutionary biologist
• Julian Huxley – British evolutionary biologist, philosopher, author
• Thomas Henry Huxley – English biologist and comparative anatomist
• Ronald Fisher – British statistician, evolutionary biologist, geneticist, and eugenicist
• Ernst Mayr – German-American evolutionary biologist
• Alfred Russel Wallace – British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and biologist
• Sewall Wright – American geneticist